Ulta's Q4 profit gets boost from margins

(AP) — Beauty product and salon company Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 58 percent as the company boosted its sales and profit margins.

Ulta Beauty also announced Thursday that its chief financial officer is stepping down due to a family health issue that it didn't disclose.

The company said CFO Gregg Bodnar will leave his job and move to Michigan after the company hires a replacement. CEO Chuck Rubin said Bodnar will remain in the job while an executive search firm seeks a new CFO, and he will help with the transition.

Bodnar, 47, joined the company as CFO in 2006.

The company gave a mixed forecast for its fiscal first quarter of 2012, saying its revenue will be toward the low end of Wall Street's expectations but its profit will beat the average analyst forecast. Its shares fell slightly after hours.

Ulta Beauty sells its products through a chain of stores where it also operates salons. The company said it plans to expand its square footage by about 22 percent in 2012 by adding 100 new stores, and it will remodel 21 others.

That should help boost revenue in the first quarter, but maybe not as high as analysts expected. The company expects first-quarter revenue of $452 million to $460 million. Analysts were expecting revenue of $459.2 million, according to FactSet.

Ulta Beauty predicted adjusted first-quarter net income between 46 cents per share and 48 cents per share, above analysts' average expectation for 45 cents per share.

The company said it boosted its fourth-quarter gross profit margin by one percentage point to 34.1 percent.

Its net income was $46.3 million, or 73 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Jan. 28. That's compared with $30.1 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. Its quarterly revenue rose 23 percent to $582.5 million from $473.7 million.

The results beat analysts' expectations for 68 cents per share on $577 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

Sales at stores open longer than a year rose 11.5 percent for the quarter, beating analyst expectations for a 10.3 percent increase, according to FactSet. That's a key indicator for retailers because it removes the short-term impacts of stores opening or closing.

For the full year of 2011, the company reported net income of $120.3 million, or $1.90 per share, up 69 percent from $71 million, or $1.16 per share, in 2010.

Revenue for the year was $1.78 billion, up 22 percent from $1.45 billion the year before.

As a result of healthy cash flow from the year, the company said it will pay a special cash dividend of $1 per share. The dividend will be paid May 15 to shareholders of record on March 20.

Shares fell 34 cents after hours to $88.93 following the earnings announcement. They had closed at $89.27, up $1.35.